'Too much' on Trayvon, GOPers say

Twice as many Republicans as Democrats say there’s been too much media coverage of the death of unarmed Florida teen Trayvon Martin, a new survey finds.

Fifty-six percent of Republicans say there’s been “too much” media about Martin’s February shooting by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, a Pew Research Center for the People & the Press study found Tuesday. Meanwhile, 25 percent of Democrats believe there is too much coverage of the story.

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Among Democrats, 38 percent said they were following Martin’s death more closely than other stories, while 19 percent of Republicans said that they were following the story more closely than other headlines.

Opinions about the coverage were also sharply divided on race. Of those saying there was too much coverage of Martin’s death, 16 percent were black while 43 percent were white.

Overall, 37 percent of the public say that news organizations are giving too much coverage to Martin’s death, with a 4-point margin of error.

The Pew survey measuring public interest in the top news stories of the week were collected between March 29 and April 1, 2012, from a nationally representative sample of 1,000 adults.